Work-related disability is an increasingly important issue in businesses and organisations, in terms of cost and competitiveness as well as being an obvious social and ethical issue. Moreover, changes in the nature of disability arising from developments in the nature of work warrant a new approach to this relatively important but understudied topic.
Significant developments have taken place in the understanding of risk in a changing labour market; in linking injury events with subsequent primary prevention efforts; in engaging all the key stakeholders in effective pre-injury prevention and post-injury disability management efforts; and in exploring the relative contributions of company-level interventions and economic incentives and regulatory interventions. These issues are examined and drawn together to form a unique, evidence-based, state-of-the-art research work revealing what works best in the prevention of workplace disability. It takes into account the changing nature of the workplace and work force; the newest evidence on what constitutes effective early and staged multi modal interventions in the workplace; psychological risk perception; and the essential linking of the workplace, the clinician, the insurer and the worker in the recovery process and in the prevention of subsequent disability events at work.